


Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

by CabageCat (CarnageKittie)



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Chapters alternate between Carolina and Washington's points of views, F/F, F/M, M/M, Mentions of Sex, Multi, Ships and characters will be added to tags in later chapters, Ships and characters will come in in later chapters, This is the Shifter fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 11:42:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2227713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarnageKittie/pseuds/CabageCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war between Humans and Shape Shifters has begun. Carolina and Washington are stuck in the middle and won't stop until they've brought the Shifters to victory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of help from friends on this one and I wouldn't have been able to write this without them.

My name is Carolina and I live in a world plagued with discrimination. Racism is a word for those who are human. It does not touch anything considered less. Anything outside the bounds of a typical human is shit upon. My world is also plagued with a hatred that eats away at everything it touches.

Shape Shifters are a relatively new concept to humans, though we are not new to each other. We have been around for millions of years but recently started booming and emerging from the shadows. We are unsure of why our population is increasing so suddenly, but it is not good news for us, or for anyone, really. Stories of murder consume the news, thousands of innocent teens and children murdered out of pure hate for my people, fearing that these innocent people, who's lives have yet to begin, are one of those abominations. We are monsters to the humans and because it is monsters they want, it is monsters we become.

Many of my people were gentle before the disgust towards us began. Shifters saved humans from their deaths in the wilds. We were miracles in that time, though no one really knew it was us, and we prided ourselves in that. We were able to live happy live in the wilds, but gradually they were stolen from us by the humans. We became easier to find. With our findings the plague was born. With the plague came more Shifters and with more Shifters the plague worsened. 

I am unsure of why we are not mentioned in history before now. Perhaps we were. Perhaps we are the intricate myths that the humans have woven over the span of their existence. It is possible that we are responsible for the tales of centaurs, sirens, fairies, and many other creatures written off as just stories. I am sure that those stories are our history. 

Many stories in today's world, sadly, depict us as punishments given to them by higher powers. We are cursed and anything but human. We are to be purged from the earth. We are vile creatures, after all. Our kindness is not true to the humans. Our motives are those of evil and we will lure them into situations of evil. 

It pains me that the times that we coexisted with humans are over and that I did not exist during them, though I am sure our coexistence was not as easy as many of my people are led to believe. I'm sure that young Shifters were still killed out of fear, but there must have been far less of that. I'm sure those times were easier. My people were still kind and helpful. Now we are hateful and many wish death upon the humans.

That is our story, though mine begins a little bit differently. I had a wonderful life before my change began. Being an only child, I had all I could have ever wanted, but as I began to show signs of becoming a Shifter I received less and less as I became what I am today. I was treated like I was nothing but trash, so I did the only thing I could at fourteen. I ran.

I did not think running away through. I had only brought a backpack of food and clothing with a few bottles of water. I didn't have anywhere to go and I didn't ration anything. After the first week I had no water and a few granola bars left. I was fucked and thought I would be dead at this rate.

I wasn't wrong. I very nearly died shortly after eating the last of my food. I was begging outside of a supermarket for something to eat. I was ignored for a few hours, but soon a couple of men approached me. They yelled something at me that I don't quite remember and I looked at them hopefully, thinking that even with their yelling they brought me something to eat. I don't think I have ever been more wrong. They pushed me around and kicked at me a bit and last thing I remember from the entire ordeal was a sharp pain in my head.

I lived in darkness for what felt like forever after that and I occasionally heard voices I didn't recognize. They were friendly and calming so I just remained asleep, not that I could wake up anyway. Occasionally there was a voice that bubbled with excitement, always asking when I would wake up.

When I finally did wake I was told by a blonde boy, with the ears of a lion perched atop his head, that I was out for two days. He told me his name was Nicholas, but I could just call him North if I wanted to. I didn't think I would. He offered me food, that I practically inhaled, and water. He told me then that I had been rescued from the men by another boy that he would introduce me to later. Shortly after our interaction I was out again.

When I woke again Nicholas was there along with a girl that looked like him, ears included. Her name was Rita and she was the biggest bitch I have ever met, she still holds the title, even to this day. She was arguing with Nicholas about something that I didn't quite catch before she realized I was awake. She sneered at me before leaving the room. 

Nicholas sighed and sat beside me, “Don't mind Rita. She's a big grump all the time and is even grumpier that Shaun brought you home.” He watched me for a moment after speaking and soon started up again, “She's upset that there will be less food for her even though we have plenty. I never did catch your name, by the way.” I struggled to sit up and he helped me, his arm hooking behind my back.

“My name is Carol.” My voice came in a hoarse whisper from disuse and I frowned at the way it sounded.

“Any nicknames, Carol?”

“Just Carol.”

“Well, Just Carol,” he laughed, “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. You think you can stand so I can show you around?” I sighed and shook my head. He offered me a smile then. “I supposed I'll just hafta carry you then, huh?” 

I shrugged and was soon climbing onto his back at his insistence. He hauled me up and hooked his arms beneath my knees and we soon left the room. The house was surprisingly large, having five rooms and a basement. Nicholas explained that he and Rita inherited it from their parents. He also told me that he lived here with three other people besides Shaun and Rita. I would make four if I stayed. He told me that he hoped I would.

After a lengthy tour of the house Nicholas dropped me off in the dinning room and went off to find the others and get the meal. Not even two minutes later I heard the sound of someone running downstairs and straight into the dining room. I did not expect a boy with dark hair and massive pointed ears, clearly canine, the color of a burnt marshmallow to nearly smack into my chair. I also didn't expect him to immediately begin talking at me, his curled tail wagging ninety miles a minute.

“My name's Shaun but you can call me New York or just York works too. If you want I can give you a state name too, everyone here's got one. There's North Dakota, that's Nicholas, and South Dakota, his evil twin, Rita. I gave her South Dakota because she's a cold hearted-”

Shaun gets cut off when Rita entered the room, “South Dakota is warmer, dumb ass.”

He huffed and sat in the seat beside me, obviously intending to continue the conversation, ignoring Rita and everyone else filing into the room. Luckily, Nicholas came and placed the meal on the table before he could say anything more.

“Alright everyone,” Nicholas starts, “This is Carol. Carol, this is everyone.”

“Do introductions!” Shaun called, his tail wagging again.

Nicholas smiled and gave a small nod, “First off is Butch.” He nodded in the direction of a smaller, but clearly older, Native American boy, bright blue wings folded behind him. He smiled in my direction.

Shaun leaned over to me and whispered, “That's Florida.”

“Next is Reginald or Reggie,” Nicholas gestured to an older boy with the ears of a coyote who looked like he did not belong with a ragtag group of shifters if it weren't for the ears. He was surprisingly proper looking. 

“Wyoming.”

“And then there's Constance or Connie.” She was a girl with an odd hairstyle and her ears hadn't quite come in yet. Later they would turn out to be a tiger's.

“Connecticut,” Shaun grinned widely

Connie huffed, “C.T.” 

Nicholas smiled, “Right, right, it's C.T., I had forgotten. Well, now that the introductions are out of the way, you all can dig in.”

And dig in they all did. I was unsure and hesitant, resulting in not getting much to eat. Nicholas sighed and scooped some of his food onto my plate. I looked at him with what I’m sure was shock.

“Gotta be quick if you wanna eat, Just Carol,” he smiled easily and ate what was left on his plate.

 

Everything was easy for a long time and after a few weeks I received my name, Carolina. To keep up with Nicholas' nickname for me I was just Carolina. Not very long after I received it, a few more joined our group. There was now Matthew, Matt, Matty, Maine. There was Georgia and Utah, their names slip my mind, I think they may have been Jeremy and Andrew, but I could be mistaken, who came separately and left together after a long time of being with us. Once they met they were inseparable I swear to you, even in death. Both were brought in by Matthew.

When I first met Matthew I was scared shit less. He was massive, had to of been six foot at least at the time. I was only fifteen and still on the shorter end of five foot. He was wearing a hood and I honestly thought he was going to jump me right in my own house. How Shaun even approached him was beyond me. Even when he removed the hood to reveal the pretty, white bear ears that looked so out of place sitting atop his head, I was baffled that Shaun, tiny, little Shaun, had been the one to bring him home. How Matthew brought home two and much, much later, a third is absolutely beyond me.

With ten in our home money from the twins' inheritance was beginning to run low. Rita was angry. Nicholas suggested work for everyone who was old enough. All of us were and so we took up petty jobs for humans that no one else would do. Some of us had it easy, things like grocery runs from those who were far more kind. Others were more unfortunate. I was one of those others. Matthew and I were employed by a vengeful man with a lot of enemies. I am unsure of what he had Matt doing, but I had to watch and occasionally steal from said enemies. It was stressful but paid well enough.

The tensions in the house still rose between the twins, even with the money we were all bringing in. Rita wanted people to leave and Nicholas insisted everyone stay. With no where else to go, all of us stayed. With all of us staying, Rita grew colder and argued with her brother far more than she had in the entire year that I had lived there. There was a yelling match almost nightly, though Rita was usually the only one yelling. I never stayed to hear what it was over, going to the backyard to unwind. On nights that their fights were too loud and sometimes violent, with Rita being the aggressor, I would leave the house completely and run down to a nearby field to get a good look at the stars.

One particularly bad night when I went down to the field, Shaun decided to follow me. For someone so small he walked rather loudly and it was easy to hear him trudging through the grass. When he found where I was sitting his arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders as he knelt behind me.

“I hope you don't mind that I followed you, Lina.” He whispered the words into my neck before resting his forehead on my shoulder. I reached behind me to run a hand through his hair and over his ears, humming in response. The fighting was getting to him, I could tell. We were silent for a long time before he finally moved around to sit beside me. His hand rested on top of mine, his palms were slick with sweat and his fingers shook a bit, but I didn't mind. I liked the thought of Shaun holding my hand.

“You come here a lot,” Shaun said, scooting closer to me. “Is it because of their fights?”

“Usually, the sky is a bonus though.” I nodded up to the stars and his gaze followed the movement.

“Do you know their names? The stars and stuff, I mean.”

I smiled and gave him another nod, “I know a few.”

“That's uh, that's cool, yeah.” His voice shaky and nervous. I laughed softly and he huffed, “Don't laugh at me.”

“Alright, alright. What're you nervous about anyway?” I looked to him and he turned away, his hand going with him. I drew my hand to myself, missing the warmth his brought. He said nothing for a long time. The silence was unbearable, so I turned myself to look at him. “Shaun?”

Shaun let out a long sigh and turned to me. His hands found mine again and he leaned towards me. My heart was pounding and I let out a breath of my own. His lips were nearly on mine when someone touched my shoulder. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Shaun actually shrieked. When I had collected myself I looked up and saw Matthew towering above us, how he moved so silently was beyond me.

“Nicholas said to come home,” he grumbled before turning and leaving. I stood quickly and held my hands out to Shaun, pulling him up with ease. As I began to leave his hand caught mine. I simply laced our fingers and walked home, smiling at the warmth blooming in my chest.

At dinner the next night he held my hand under the table. The flush on our cheeks and Shaun's dumb, dopey smile did not go unnoticed. In fact, everyone at the table noticed. Some, Reginald and Connie, had their eyebrows raised. Nicholas, Utah and Butch offered us smiles and Rita looked off with blatant disgust. Georgia gave Shaun a huge thumbs up and Matthew just offered a nod before picking around his food. 

What did go unnoticed by most, however, was that Matthew still had well over half a plate of food when he dismissed himself to the kitchen. The back door could be heard shutting almost as soon as he left the table. Nicholas' expression changed to one of worry and he was soon following Matt out of the house. Matt's behavior continued like this for weeks before Rita finally noticed and called him out on it.

Her fists slammed down on the table as she rose after him one night. “What the fuck do you thing you're doing?” Matthew looked to her and his eyebrows knitted together as he thought of what to say.

Rita didn't give him a chance to speak, “You've been wasting food for weeks. What did you think we wouldn't notice?”

“It isn't wasted,” he growled, glowering down at the much smaller Shifter.

“Oh, bullshit,” she approached him and if he were shorter she would have been right up in his face. She jabbed a finger into his chest and he replied with a menacing growl, “You better not be keeping some secret fucking pet. We can't afford that shit,” we could, indeed, afford a pet if we wanted one, “We can hardly afford having your giant ass live here,” of course we could. We all made our own money. She jabbed him in the chest again, trying to make a point as she also asserted her dominance.

Another deep growl came from Matthew but Nicholas stood and slammed his palms against the table, “That is enough! Matthew, go do what you need to do. Rita, sit your ass down and eat.” Rita narrowed her eyes but did as she was told, glaring daggers into Matthew as he left and then to Nicholas. An awkward silence settled over the table and as soon as someone was finished eating they retreated to their rooms or outside. Shaun and I went to the field to watch the clouds.

After the whole fiasco at dinner that night Rita became colder towards Nicholas and anyone else who sided with him. She snapped at almost everyone who spoke to her, Connie being the exception. She was gone far more often as well, not that anyone but Nicholas minded. She claimed she was working and maybe she was telling the truth.

After another year of being in the house the air was so tense you could cut it with a knife. Until one day things took a turn for the grim. Utah, Georgia, and I were set with the task of buying groceries for the week. Things went well while we were shopping. On the walk home and out of the city is where things went sour. It was a long walk and so we had Georgia carrying most of the bags, he was the strongest and had the paddles of a bull moose that he would hang the lighter bags from and laugh. Utah was laughing with him, his tail wagging lazily. I grinned and laughed whenever one of them would crack a joke. We were almost back to the house when the car pulled up beside us.

The jokes and laughing stopped as Georgia and I ducked our heads to avoid trouble, Utah looked on curiously. The people in the car had yelled something at us. Utah tucked his tail and his brown eyes were wide. My eyes traveled to where Utah was looking. They had a gun. They had a gun and they were pointing it at Utah.

They were yelling again. They were yelling and Georgia was yelling back. The gun was pointed to him now, pointed at his chest, and Utah was crying. I was frozen and so tense and I couldn't do anything. Then there was the loud crack of a gun, blood spraying through the air. Utah was screaming and racing to reach Georgia. Georgia was on the ground now. I could hear him choking, an occasional sob breaking through the gurgle of blood. Utah dropped beside him and wrapped his arms around him, tried talking to him. It didn't take long until there was a bullet in his head and then I was running.

I sprinted to the house, going into half shift, and the car followed me. They shot me in the leg just feet from the front yard before speeding off. I screamed and fell into the grass and fuck, did that hurt. I can only imagine how Georgia felt. I know it was slow for him. I could still hear him choking when I left.

I was still screaming when Nicholas came out seconds later, followed by whoever else was in the house. He was on his knees in front of me and I was biting back any sound I could, tears rolling down my face. He had Matthew take me back to the house, racing down the road with Shaun, Reginald, and Butch tearing after him. I blacked out soon after Matt picked me up.

I woke up in a hospital bed and I panicked. I panicked so badly that I began to go into half shift. I panicked until I felt Nicholas' hand touch my shoulder and hear him tell me that it was alright. I looked to him and he looked absolutely drained. It scared me to see him like that. 

We stayed in the cheap room for a long time, doctors coming and going with their questions, until eventually we got to leave. After leaving the wheel chair I was forced into, Nicholas carried me to the car we used only in emergencies. He put me in the back seat so I had a place to rest my leg, wrapped in a cast from the break the bullet left.

The drive home was quiet and heavy. The atmosphere at home was the same. There was no laughter or arguments. No one came excitedly to the door when Nicholas took me inside. There was no Utah to greet us, his body shaking with excitement. No Georgia laughing at how excited Utah was. There was just Shaun, slowly slinking up to say hello. 

I was taken to my room and set on my bed. Nicholas ruffled my hair sadly before he left me alone and soon Shaun was crawling up into my bed, nudging his head under my hand. I run my fingers through his hair. We don't say anything and we fall asleep together. 

It's early the next morning when I wake up from the nightmare of watching the deaths of Utah and Georgia. The sun wasn't up yet and Shaun was still with me, his face buried in my side and his arms wrapped tightly around my middle. He was awake and tightened his hold on me when he noticed I was awake. Shaun looks at me and frowns when he sees my tears. He crawls up and kisses them away before settling back into my side. He tells me stories about when he was younger as we wait for breakfast to be made.

We didn't realize it was time to eat until Nicholas came to get us. Honestly, how could we? The sounds of Georgia and Utah romping through the halls to try and get to the food first were gone. There was no knocking on the walls as Georgia's paddles smacked into them. There were no calls for anyone to wake up. The house was silent, even more so than when I first came to live here. 

Nicholas offered us a small, sad smile before he went off to do whatever it was he had to do. Shaun slowly moved to get out of bed, promising to bring me some breakfast.

A week after I had home we held a makeshift funeral for Georgia and Utah. It started with Nicholas speaking and when it was clear he couldn't take it, Butch took over for him. It was short and there was too much crying, and I hated it. I hated that I hadn't been able to help them. I hated that Shaun was holding my hand to comfort me when it was clear that he was the one that needed the comfort. I hated that I was powerless to help my family. 

It took a long time for my leg to heal and it took even longer for everyone to recover from the murders of Georgia and Utah even just a little bit. It took Nicholas the longest. He became a shadow of himself and it was hard to get him to do much of anything. It was understandable, they were part of his family, of our family. They were life in our home. They held a lot of us together and now we were falling apart.

Rita bristled at anything that reminded her of them, reminded her that their death made her brother become a shell of himself. She threw a glass plate at Shaun when he brought it up one day. He ended up with stitches from the same shitty hospital I woke up in. Connie grew colder and broke things a lot. Butch smiled less, wasn't as cheerful. Matthew and Reginald withdrew on themselves and didn't really interact with anyone. 

Shaun's downfall was the hardest to watch. He laughed less, made less jokes. He didn't talk as much as he used to and I often found him curled up next to me in the mornings, even if he wasn't there when I fell asleep. I don't think my constant nightmares helped him much, but he was always there. He had to be or he fell apart. Watching him like that hurt a lot and it took him nearly as long as it took Nicholas to come out of it. He still wasn't the same when he did.

With Nicholas out of it, two of us gone, and many things destroyed, we had to work harder and get more dangerous jobs to get more money. Many of us took up jobs of thievery for others and going as far as becoming mercenaries. I was a mercenary for an organization that wanted to save the Shifters. I was to kill big names who wanted to rid the Earth of my people. I wanted to take revenge on the humans for what they had done to my family. Rita and Matthew were the only ones who joined me at first. It was fine, it was easier to keep it a secret that way. We were a good team and Matthew or Rita took most of the kills. Again, it was fine, I was still training with weapons.

I was still sixteen when I finished my training and made my first kill. I found him in his study after rifling around in his home to scope out what I wanted to take with me to make it look like a burglary. I shot him in the back of the head at point blank. It was exhilarating. 

I killed many more times before Nicholas found out what we were doing. Rita was excitedly retelling the story of her most recent kill to Matthew and I when he came in to tell us that it was dinner time. He came in at the wrong time, heard the wrong things. I have never seen Nicholas so angry in my entire life. He yelled, really yelled. There was fire in his eyes and it was absolutely terrifying. When he was done being angry he pulled each of us into a tight hug. He shook when he hugged me and I knew he was only angry because he was scared. He was so scared of losing any of us. He soon joined our line of work. He became our eyes on missions. After our first mission he insisted upon using the state names Shaun had given us while we were on the job to keep our identities secret. 

I soon became Just Carolina instead of Just Carol.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Mutation (discontinued)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2437982) by [The_Yognaut (The_Optimist)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Optimist/pseuds/The_Yognaut)




End file.
